European Z8 tail lights - copied from For Sale section because there is great info in this thread.

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I think it's two screws and pop about 20 joints with a trim spade. Takes 5 mins.

Don't you think 5 min is a little bit optimistic? You have to empty the trunk (remove the plastic, remove the carpet, disconnect the wires underneath the black carpet etc.) Disassemble the lower bumper to get to certain screws for disconnecting the upper bumper. A few wires need to be disconnected while the upper bumper has to be held in place behind the car. I am extremley cautious doing this work, did it several times and it takes me about 3 to 4 hours to replace a tail light. Being not careful might cause major damage because breaking the plastic joints will lead to a new bumper and a paint job...

Regarding the tail light issue in Europe we gave the following information to our Club members:

Since the publication of our last info-letter, May 2011, in which we informed you about the availability of EC-tail lights from BMW, we have had new developments on this issue. Up until about the middle of September 2011, not a single tail light was available from BMW. As far as we know, left tail lights are currently available, and we were informed that right tail lights will be available again by March 2012.Our own investigation has shown that the currently available left tail lights are not a new development but have the same, technically identical, parts as all previously available tail lights. We have no knowledge of any tail lights showing technology that was developed after the year 2001.

We can offer our Club Members 3 different tail light options (always in exchange for the old EC-tail lights):

Please contact the Club office for more information and delivery options!

Last week we received a note from a BMW dealership that they expect to be able to provide Z8 customers with right tail lights in December 2012 !!! Yes, December 2012!!! This is not confirmed by BMW right now but that means BMW ran out of right tail lights for one and a half year and any Z8, whose owner is not a member of the Z8 Club e.V., with an accident or a simple tail light failure, has to sit in the garage for that period of time. I will not give you an answer or my opinion on that situation because I am absolutely sure we are very close in our opinion how a manufacturer should treat their loyal Z8 customers...

Yes , there is a 50 years warranty on parts and BMW confirmed this to us but there is no statement about availability and prices of course...

I have to be honest, the tail light issue is an European problem for now, but the longer it takes the US-market might be effected because in some European countries (e.g. Switzerland) it is allowed to drive a Z8 with US tail lights and Z8 owners from Switzerland are often changing from ECE to US tail lights in case of a problem. We are also converting US-tail lights to European tail lights to keep the Z8s of our members running...

The good thing is! Members of the BMW Z8 Club e.V. are safe because we are able to re-built the tail lights regardless if they are ECE or US-spec.

What are the benefits of being a member of the BMW Z8 Club e.V.?

A few years ago I wrote the text below in another threat on this website to give an answer to this question. Now we can add a dealership cooperation with Peter Pan BMW in the US (http://www.z8-club.de/cms/en/content...p-cooperations) , a reinforcement bracket for the lower part of the rear bumper and tail lights.

We are also considering offering low cost solutions for the replacement of parts which become defect more frequently, like the MAF (mass airflow meter) or the rear-view mirror. These parts would be offered in exchange for the defect parts. the problem of the ?fogged-up head lights? is also a current technical issue, we are attempting to find a way to clean the head lights and are currently undertaking our own tests.

Also under consideration is a wind-breaker made of glass that prevents the ?grinding? of the soft top on the safety-bars during opening and closing, as well as a speedometer- display in original EC-optic for the conversion of US- vehicles, this will save the rather high cost of having to exchange the entire speedometer.

We are increasingly noticing that the dashboard leather shows delamination, blistering and creasing. The dashboard is currently still available as original BMW spare part, however, here too, we are looking into finding a solution for the future ourselves, in case BMW should ever have problems delivering. BTW we will reach a number of 700 members next year!

Dear Scott,

I think I understand your point in the previous post and I will try to give you an extensive answer because this is a common question about the BMW Z8 Club e.V.: What are the benefits of membership?

I apologize before writing this because English is not my mother tongue and maybe I will not find the right words to express myself.

The idea and the vision at the inaugural meeting in Munich in 2005 was to create ONE Club all over the world to bring people together who are sharing the same passion for the BMW Z8.

The Z8 is a car, is a car, is a car, BUT! it is a special one, and I truly believe the Z8 is looking for the right owner. Some ?short time? owners were disappointed with the car because it is not a real sports car that can drive the fastest lap on a track. For this purpose, we could easily find more competitive cars (but only ?ordinary? cars!). I am sure there are a lot of reasons why the Z8 is not a real sports car, but there are also tons of reasons for simply to fall in love with this ?vehicle?.

The ?vehicle? Z8 brings people together no matter where they live, no matter of religion, culture, government, age, sex, country etc. And this is a key fact for us! The Z8 as ?a vehicle? can help us to cross boarders, understand a lot more about different cultures, and hopefully participate in making this world a much more better place to live in (with our Z8 of course).

With being a member of the BMW Z8 Club e.V. you will also support this ?vision? and we do everything we can to make this happen?

There are also ?countable? benefits for members:

You will get a yearly magazine with all technical things we discovered over the year, a special ring binder, a membership card and a special present with the welcome package. This present has changed over time. In the early days of the Club each member got a silver Z8 pin, which was part of the marketing campaign of BMW for the Z8. BMW decided not to give them away, so we (the BMW Z8 Club) bought them all and gave them as a present to the new members. There are no pins left so the presents will change over time. There also were Christmas presents the last years like silver Z8 name tags or a special Z8 aluminum pen. Things you can only get if you are a member and which are not available for money.

The technical information from the BMW Z8 Club e.V. on the Z8 is worth ?thousands of dollars?. Since the Z8 is a special vehicle, there will also be special problems in the future. We had the frame issue and it is certainly the merit of the BMW Z8 Club e.V. to have a performance package from the manufacturer now. It took us one year hard work to make this happen, and all members of the Z8 Club?s board are working on a voluntary basis during their leisure time.

The story about ?breaking the news? of the frame issue was very interesting. I was visiting Andrew over Christmas 2005 in LA and gave him a full update about the problem we discovered a few weeks earlier. I will never have such a Christmas time again! Andrew did break the news on this board and the rest is history?

This only as an example for the way we are acting. I am in close contact with Andrew and he will always get the latest technical news. He will post it on this board to keep all owners informed, NOT only club members, following the vision, I tried to explain before. I have chosen this way because we can avoid misunderstandings caused by my limited language skills.

By doing a simple math, knowing about the performance package from the BMW Club e.V. will save you the membership fee for 200 years in case of damage.

As a second example, knowing about the radiator issue will save you the membership fees for 240 years in case of damage?

That is a real countable benefit of being a member of the BMW Z8 Club e.V., I think!

With 540 members from all over the world, 19 countries, and nearly 100 members from the US at the moment, we really have a very loud voice at BMW in Munich and strength in numbers really is the key in our effort to have support from BMW forever?

You may have noticed in Monterey that I am not the one who is going after all Z8 owners for becoming a member. The BMW Z8 Club e.V. is a lot more than the answer to the question ?what will I get?? It is also to support a vision by using the vehicle Z8 as a tool and having fun of course?

I am proud to be a part of the Z8 world and meeting all the wonderful people at the Monterey event was a real pleasure. There are some true friendships and being a Z8 owner did affect my whole life so the ?vision? becomes reality?

There are a lot of BMW Clubs around, BMWCCA being one of them. Some of them offer good value to BMW drivers, no matter which model they own. The BMW Z8 Club e.V. is a much more exclusive community dealing with this very special model that is expected to become the second 507 for BMW. Hence all activities have to be seen long term, be it the attempt to establish the community around a collectable car very early through reunions and trips, or be it by steadily collecting any and all technical information as long as there are people around who have it.

As said above, drivers/owners are selected quickly, usually during the first year of ownership. Thereafter, we mostly deal with proud owners who want to keep their Z8 for a long time, very different from the average Porsche owner (nothing bad about Porsche here). The BMW Z8 Club e.V. will do its best to help making this long time a very enjoyable one.

But then, of course, we simply like driving the Z8 as well. __________________

J?rgen this is great information. Thank you for being such a wonderful resource to the Z8 community.

PS- one thing I note is the spelling for your name which I believe I have correct here. However, your user name seems to have an extra "e" in it ("J?ergen") I think I misspelled it once using this spelling as I was thinking I had been misspelling it all along. For me its simply a matter of making sure I use the proper spelling. I like to make sure I spell people's names correctly due to the limitations of text based communications- its possible for someone to think they are being insulted when in fact they are not.

I have a set of Euro lenses that I wanted to install but then hesitated when I heard the rear fenders had to be removed. If you wouldn't mind, please post your experience with how easily your shop says the job was.
Thank you in advance,
Chris

I'd say J?rgen's report of at least 3 hours is pretty accurate. I just took down the lower number to experiment with the exhaust. It's relatively easy once you pop the first joint - 15 mins, but the upper bumper has many more steps, including dealing with the connections for the marker lights (US), plate lamp, and reverse/fog lights. It's likely an hour to disassemble. So, even for a shop with all the tools and replacement fasteners, you're looking at about an hour and a half just to get to the lights. Assembly usually goes faster, but with the disassembly and replacing the lights, I could easily see this turning in to four hours. Nothing looks difficult, but having an experienced Z8 tech could save some time.

I actually prefer the US all-red lights for visual uniformity. In addition, I've often considered filling the rear marker lights. An EU bumper would be an option, but they don't have the cutout for the rear plate.

I know, it's funny how our favorite spot by complete coincidence is exactly where BMW AG went to do those official Press pix, it's almost as if they knew! ;-)
However I think we've made rather better use of it that they did. :-)

Andrew Macpherson

Expert Z8 Inspections, with full support for both Z8 sale and purchases.

Congratulations! The wait is nearly over. Have you seen your Z8 with the fiery red tail lights in person?

Absolutely. Although Matt and Dana had thoroughly vetted the car, Marty Wiener has been my guru in evaluating them, and I can't sing his praises enough. If he had been able to look at her I might have bought her sight unseen, but otherwise I had looked at enough Z8's already to know I had to see her myself to make sure she "spoke to me".

Every Z8 picture post is beautiful, but every once in a while you get lucky with the camera and something magical appears, even in this digital age where we have left the mystery of film and chemicals. In this picture I thought the lights really stood out, which made it a good post here.

Euro lenses

Originally Posted by skicoach

I have a set of Euro lenses that I wanted to install but then hesitated when I heard the rear fenders had to be removed. If you wouldn't mind, please post your experience with how easily your shop says the job was.
Thank you in advance,
Chris

European tail lights

Hello.
I'm searching for european tail lights for my Z8
and I have USA tail lights 4 sale.

Best regards from Germany.

Good morning. I am new posting on here because my company has just successfully converted US tail lights to European spec on a client's Alpina.

They look outwardly identical to the US spec ones i.e. all red lens but flash amber through the red lens when indicating. The top section does also continue to light up red (unlike the genuine European lights) with the tail lights switched on. This means that you still get the effect of all red US spec lights, but with the amber indicator added. The LEDs are as bright as the neon tubes and occupy the full width of the lamp assembly to keep them looking as sympathetic as possible.

To convert the lamps we need you pair of US lights. The car will need to have the control module reprogrammed to eliminate the shared brake/indicator as per the US specification.

We can conduct the full conversion for you if you wish, including removing and replacing the lamps and having the car reprogrammed. We are UK-based.

Tail Lights replaced with LED's- 2000 BMW Z8

I had my lights rebuilt with the LED's (I have European tail lights, car came from Belgium years ago). I searched for over 2 years and could not find replacements. It was very frustrating not finding replacements. Very disappointed with BMW. Put them in myself with the help of a friend in about 5 hours taking our time. They have been in my car for a couple of years now with no issues and look good. I am concerned the car is not completely original and would put OEM lights in if I could find them. Until them, these look good! TerrySt Louis, MO

Tail Lights replaced with LED's

So how do the LED lights look? Plug and play, no codes or issues? Seems like a nice alternative.

Originally Posted by THowell

I had my lights rebuilt with the LED's (I have European tail lights, car came from Belgium years ago). I searched for over 2 years and could not find replacements. It was very frustrating not finding replacements. Very disappointed with BMW. Put them in myself with the help of a friend in about 5 hours taking our time. They have been in my car for a couple of years now with no issues and look good. I am concerned the car is not completely original and would put OEM lights in if I could find them. Until them, these look good! TerrySt Louis, MO

I had my lights rebuilt with the LED's (I have European tail lights, car came from Belgium years ago). I searched for over 2 years and could not find replacements. It was very frustrating not finding replacements. Very disappointed with BMW. Put them in myself with the help of a friend in about 5 hours taking our time. They have been in my car for a couple of years now with no issues and look good. I am concerned the car is not completely original and would put OEM lights in if I could find them. Until them, these look good! TerrySt Louis, MO

The Z8 Club put me in touch with a dealer in Germany who was able to get me a pair.

2000 Red over black
heavily modified for performance. Although, not to the level of GM's car